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Picnic Benches

Rules for Stoves at BNL Workshop

1. Rules

These rules represent the sole rules of the Wood Stove Design Challenge event, the Collaborative Stove Design Workshop, organized by the Alliance for Green Heat ("the Challenge"). No oral or other unofficial communications are binding. However, there may be clarifications issued periodically at https://www.for-green-heat.org/workshop

2. Terms

The Alliance for Green Heat is hereinafter referred to as the "Organizer." Entrants or participants in the Challenge are hereafter referred to as "Teams". Teams may consist of a single individual or company, or any group of individuals, institutions, or companies except accredited wood stove test labs. The work submitted by each Team in connection with the Challenge is hereafter referred to as "the Team Entry."

3. Technology eligibility

  1. Stoves must be fully or substantially automated, meaning that the operator has no, or substantially reduced ability to control the air supply.

  2. Team Entries must use cordwood as fuel.

  3. Technology may already be on market, about to come to the market or a prototype in development.

  4. The Team Entry must be for a fully functioning stove and not an accessory or retrofit device.

  5. Teams may adapt existing stoves. Pursuant to section 4(b) below, the Organizer shall not be liable for any claims by third parties relating to the Team Entry.

4. Legal

  1. Ownership of Intellectual Property: To the extent that the Team Entry is subject to intellectual property protection, the Organizer agrees that Teams shall retain all such rights, and the submission of the Team Entry does not give the Organizer any right, title, or interest in such intellectual property rights, other than as described in section (iii) below.

    1. Teams shall have the right to use, release to others, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Team Entry outside the scope of the Challenge.

    2. By submitting the Team Entry, Teams grant the Organizer, and others acting on its behalf, a royalty-free, nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to use, display to the public, and prepare derivative works of the Team Entry in connection with the Challenge. Included within the scope of this license is the right of the Organizer to publish, distribute and display information, photos, drawings, or other images of the Team Entry for use in connection with the Challenge. The Organizer agrees that it shall not publish information regarding detailed specifications and plans for the Team Entry, and shall only use such information as is reasonably necessary in connection with the Challenge. If the Organizer needs to provide more detailed information or images, it shall consult with the Teams.

    3. By submitting the Team Entry, Teams represent and warranty that the Team Entry is an original work of authorship, or that the Team Entry does not infringe the intellectual property rights, including any patent, copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights of any third party.

    4.  The Organizer is not responsible for any claims or disputes between individual members of a Team regarding the ownership of the Team Entry or the content within the Team Entry. The Organizer may disqualify any individual or Team, without recourse and in its sole discretion, if any such claim or dispute arises.

  2. Protection of Intellectual Property Rights: The Organizer is committed to protecting the Intellectual Property rights of Teams entering the contest. No image, drawing, diagram, photo or details will be publicly released without the consent of the Team, except as provided in subsections (1) through (3) below. However, since part of the purpose of the Challenge is to educate the public about how clean stove technology works and why judges award prizes to certain Teams, Teams must be willing to allow certain general information to be released, as follows:

    1. The Organizer can publish photos or drawings of the exterior of stoves that are selected as finalists along with a descriptive paragraph about the stoves. A general cross section drawing of finalists will be released with permission of the Team. In advance of the Workshop, photos or drawings and the descriptive paragraph will be supplied by the Team.

    2. Stoves selected as finalists that appear in the Workshop will be tested for efficiency, emissions and CO2 and such data may be shared with participants during the Workshop and made public after the Workshop.

  3. Indemnification: The Organizer shall not be liable for any claims or actions brought by third parties against Teams arising from or related to the Team Entry or a violation of these Rules, including but not limited to third party claims of intellectual property infringement. Teams shall indemnify, defend, and hold the Organizer harmless and free from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, costs, judgments, expenses, or liabilities (including reasonable legal fees) made by third parties against the Organizer and/or incurred by the Organizer arising out of or related in any way to the Team Entry. The Organizer shall have the right to select and retain counsel of its own choosing.

5. Judges

  1. A panel of up to 10 Judges will be assembled to judge the Workshop. Judges cannot be an employee of a wood stove manufacturer or a Team, or have any financial interest or connection with a Team.

  2. The Judges will be drawn from the Organizing Committee, and the Organizing Committee can also invite others to be a judge, if they want.

6. Scoring

  1. The Judges will assess each Team Entry and determine, in their sole discretion, which Team Entry or Entries receive the $1,000 cash award, or other prize, or notable mention. The Judges have absolute and sole discretion to determine the selection of prizewinners. In the event that a Team Entry has an identical score to another Team Entry, the Judges reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to either score one Team Entry higher than the other or to choose one or both of the Team Entries as a prize winner of the Workshop. The Organizer has discretion to undertake the judging and testing process in the manner it deems necessary for the purposes of the Workshop.

  2. The Judges will assess stoves based on the final criteria:

    1. Emissions. This will be done objectively by PM analyzers.

    2. Efficiency. This will also be done objectively by heat loss calculations.

    3. Safety & carbon monoxide. CO2 will be done objectively by sensors and other safety issues, if any, will be assessed by judges.

    4. Affordability. This will be done by estimates supplied by the Teams and by general assessments done by the Judges. Judges will focus mostly on estimated costs of the materials and components of the stove and will give less emphasis on labor and production costs.

    5. Innovation. Judges will look for innovation, which could come in the form of simplicity, complexity, new ideas or old ideas implemented and combined in new ways.

    6. Market appeal and ease of use. Judges will look for how appealing the stove is to consumers, ease of use, aesthetics, etc.

7. Testing & Fueling

  1. Testing at the Workshop strives to test all stoves fairly against one another and at the same time to simulate conditions that are likely used in consumers' homes. Thus we will be using cordwood and will test at various points of the burn cycle.

  2. The primary emissions testing equipment will be by tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM). We will be using both the Testo 380 and Wöhler SM 500, and possibly other similar instruments. In addition to the Testo and Wohler, which will be used on all seven of the Team entries, we will also test some of the stoves with a dilution tunnel to gain additional data and insight. For more detail about testing with the Testo and Wohler, click here for a summary of testing at the 2013 Wood Stove Decathlon.

  3. The cord wood we will use is kiln dried red oak. The wood will be kiln dried until it is approximately 20% moisture content, based on the protocol developed by NYSERDA. For more information:
    http://www.nyserda.ny.gov//media/Files/Publications/Research/Biomass-Solar-Wind/wood-fuel-moisture-accuracy.pdf

  4. We are using the fueling protocol developed for the 2013 Decathlon as a basis for the Workshop. The updated version for the Workshop can be found here: https://www.for-green-heat.org/stove-design/fueling

  5. Each stove will be subjected to at least two (2) test runs.

  6. Teams may not touch the stoves during the testing. Stoves that require manual adjustments of air, bypass dampers, etc. will be done by testing technicians.

  7. 8. Petition

8. Petition

If a team believes that there were problems with a test run of the magnitude that the test results should be discarded and another run be done in its place, the Team must contact the Judges in writing within 2 hours of the end of the test. The petition should clearly state what the problems were, and why the team believes that the results should be thrown out and a new test conducted. Petitions must be emailed to jackerly@forgreenheat.org and judges will convene the following day to consider the petition.

9. Prizes

  1. Grand Prizewinner will receive a $1,000 cash prize. The Grand Prize will be awarded to the Stove that receives the highest combined score of all 6 categories.

  2. The judges may also give one or more non-monetary prizes. It is the prerogative of the judges to give a prize based on a single one of the six scored criteria:

    1. Emissions

    2. Efficiency

    3. Safety & Carbon monoxide

    4. Affordability

    5. Innovation

    6. Market appeal

  3. All federal, state, local, municipal, income, and other taxes (if any) are the sole responsibility of the winners.

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